In a game that had become a blowout, this was a day that belonged to Byron Buxton. The Minnesota Twins All-Star center fielder already had sandwiched two singles around a triple and a double when he came to bat with two outs in the seventh inning.
When Buxton crushed Andrew Heaney’s 0-2 curveball 427 feet over the fence in straightaway center, the crowd rose in celebration of the first cycle at Target Field. Fans were still standing when Willi Castro sent the next pitch to left-center for back-to-back homers.
The outcome had long been decided before Buxton hit his 21st homer of the season, so it served as the punctuation on a 5-for-5 performance at the plate as the Twins pounded the Pittsburgh Pirates, 12-4, on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis.
The Pirates (38-58) suffered their eighth consecutive loss, marking their longest losing streak of the season. They will attempt to avoid a third consecutive sweep on the road trip in the series finale Sunday afternoon.
Where the Twins planned for a bullpen game by using an opener, the Pirates were forced to turn to their relievers early. Cole Sands retired the side on seven pitches in the first inning, but Pirates starter Mike Burrows didn’t make it out of the second inning.
After Royce Lewis drew a one-out walk and Burrows hit Ty France with a pitch, Kody Clemens sent a first-pitch curveball 389 feet to right for his 12th home run and a 3-0 lead. Buxton tripled to left-center and scored on a swinging bunt by Castro, which was compounded by Burrows’ throwing error to first.
Castro advanced to second because umpires ruled the ball was lodged along the padding on the first-base line, and the Pirates lost a challenge to the call. Burrows walked Trevor Larnach, and Ryan Jeffers hit a sharp grounder to right to drive in Castro for a 5-0 lead.
The Pirates pulled Burrows after recording only four outs on 56 pitches, bringing in lefty Genesis Cabrera. But Brooks Lee doubled down the left-field line to score Larnach for a six-run advantage. The Pirates finally got a break on a play at the plate, when catcher Joey Bart reached high for Spencer Horwitz’s throw from first and tagged Jeffers out.
The Twins added three more runs against Cabrera in the third inning. France drew a leadoff walk, Clemens singled to center and Buxton hit a book-rule double to left to score France for a 7-0 lead. Castro followed with a single to center to drive in Clemens, and Larnach hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Buxton.
The Pirates finally scored in the fourth, when Andrew McCutchen drew a full-count walk, advanced to second on a single by Bryan Reynolds and scored on an error by Lewis on a grounder to third by Nick Gonzales to make it 9-1.
Jack Suwinski started the fifth by blasting the first pitch he saw, a hanging curveball, 408 feet to right field for his first home run of the season to cut it to 9-2.
With the All-Star break beginning Monday, the Pirates used Heaney in relief. But the left-handed starter surrendered a solo shot to Matt Wallner, who hit a first-pitch fastball 434 feet to right for his 10th homer and a 10-2 Twins lead in the sixth.
Bart snapped out of an 0-for-12 funk on the road trip with an RBI single to score Oneil Cruz and cut it to 10-3 in the seventh. Then Buxton and Castro went deep in back-to-back at-bats to give the Twins a 12-3 edge.
The Pirates added another run in the eighth, when Horwitz drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on a single to center by Gonzales to make it 12-4.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
